Field Training
by Mordinette
Summary: Spectre training was easy. Putting up with her turian teammate during their group lessons was less so. AU story with Shepard, Garrus, Jondum Bau, and as many characters from the Mass Effect universe as I can fit in.
1. Group Lessons

_**A/N: **__So, another femShep/Garrus story... Well, what can I say? I just love this couple. :D_

_Big thanks to Tuffet37 for being my advisor/sounding board, and to KabiViolet for beta reading._

_**Disclaimer: **__Mass Effect and its characters belong to BioWare. I make no money from the writing of this story. _

* * *

Jondum Bau could never understand other races' irrational need for darkness during the Presidium's artificial night cycle. Granted, the carefully-simulated black sky provided a pleasing backdrop for the shimmering lights that outlined the offices, shops, and other establishments in this part of the Citadel during the late hours, but as far as _he_ was concerned, it was all just wasted resources that could have been better spent on other things.

Like actual, proper exterior lighting. He definitely could have used some of that right now.

He let out a rather undignified groan as he rubbed his foot and softly cursed whoever it was that had left something so hard and unyielding right next to the entrance door. His aching toes sufficiently soothed, he lifted his left arm and fired up his omni-tool to enter his access code to the apartment's VI. The system went through the extensive verification procedure he had set up for his security system, and in a few moments the lights finally came on with a comforting hum.

He blinked a few times to let his eyes adjust to the sudden brightness, and once he got his vision back, he walked around, evaluating every piece of furniture, every little detail in the spacious room.

All seemed to be in order, except for the entry table that he had stubbed his toes on. He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes as he contemplated this new variable; he was certain that item had not been so close to the door before he'd left for his last mission.

He carefully deposited his bag on the floor and, without taking another step, brought up his omni-tool once again to scan the table and its surroundings for an explosive device. The results were negative, which was somewhat comforting, but it wasn't quite enough to put him at ease, so he tiptoed to the offending piece of furnishing and examined it inch by inch.

There were no outward signs of any tempering with the structural integrity of the item, but that didn't mean that somebody hadn't had an ulterior motive in changing its position. Maybe they'd put a listening device behind it on the wall; it wouldn't have been the first time, and certainly not the last, for an adversary to try to get the upper hand by such devious methods.

He grabbed the top and gently pushed until the table was back in its usual place. The wall behind it was clear; the carpet under it, however, was not.

"Chel," Bau growled in exasperation as he examined the bright blue stain blooming in an abstract shape on the light beige flooring. It appeared to have come from some kind of a cleaning fluid. If he looked closely, he could even see the faint outline of a bucket that had pressed into the lush carpet's pile, leaving a tamped down ring and a few more drops of blue splotches in its wake.

He straightened up, shaking his head, and headed into the kitchen to make himself a cup of herbal tea. This was what you got when you gave in to your family's nagging despite your reservations: an idiot cousin for a housekeeper who could never do anything right.

**~ooo~**

Bau settled down in front of his computer and allowed himself a sip of the steaming liquid before he deposited the mug onto the desk and turned on the display to check his mail. A quick scan revealed a few encrypted notes from some of his contacts, a notification from the Requisitions Office about a new weapon he might consider purchasing, and a message from the Council that flashed an urgent red.

Having just returned from a grueling trip, he wasn't really looking forward to another lengthy assignment so soon, no matter how much he loved his work, but he dutifully clicked on the subject line and opened the missive.

_'Spectre Bau,' _it read, _'Please contact me at your earliest convenience.'_

His heart nearly skipped a beat when he got to the signature: the letter was from Councilor Tevos.

He swallowed past the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat and entered the code with unsteady fingers to put in a call to the beautiful asari.

"Ah, Spectre Bau," the Councilor's smooth voice drifted from the holo display as her image shimmered to life. "Thank you for answering my message. I need your help."

Bau sat up a bit straighter in his chair, thrilled beyond words that she was asking for _his _assistance with whatever it was she needed, and gave an encouraging wave of his hand. "Anything. Anything at all."

Tevos awarded him with a smile, which did wonderful things to his chest. "It's about two new Spectre candidates. Both of them are on the Citadel at the moment, and they both were supposed to start their training tomorrow. Unfortunately," she continued, pressing her fingers together in a graceful gesture, "neither Spectre Kryik nor Spectre Vasir have returned from their respective missions in time to begin the mentoring program."

Jondum tilted his head as he drank in the asari's words. She had a very pleasant voice, and those patterns on her face were so delicate—

"I know this is a bit sudden, but I was wondering if you would be willing to step in and lend us your knowledge and experience in training one of these candidates? They have both taken leave from their official positions and are ready to go out in the field. You could have your pick of the two; we'll try to find another mentor for the one left behind."

She waited for a few seconds, expecting the salarian to say something, but he merely stared at her with those big, black eyes, so she cleared her throat and went on. "Naturally, you will be compensated for your efforts and will be provided with all the resources and support you need. So, can I count on you, Spectre?"

"Oh," Bau finally croaked out, "of course. I'll be happy to assist."

"Excellent." Tevos raised her arm to activate her omni-tool and tapped on a few holographic keys. "I have sent you their files. Please look through them carefully, and once you've made your decision, let me know which candidate you would like to work with. And thank you."

She flashed him a wonderful smile before her visage disappeared and Bau was left staring at the flickering static on his holo display.

His reverie was interrupted by a ping on his computer. A glance at the interface confirmed that the files had arrived, and he opened the first folder to check what exactly he had agreed to.

_'Shepard, Jane. Human. Commanding Officer of the SSV Normandy under Captain David Anderson, Systems Alliance._

_Born: April 11, 2154, Mindoir. Entire __family killed during a batarian slavers raid on the colony. _

_Joined the human military at the age of 18. Graduate of the Systems Alliance N7 special forces program._

_Trained in biotic and tech powers and a wide range of weapons. Exhibits outstanding military and leadership skills._

_Recipient of the Star of Terra award for her heroic actions during the attack on the human colony Elysium.'_

Bau's head bobbed up and down as he read the commander's psych profile and service record. Oh, yes, he knew who this was. He'd seen plenty of news reports and salarian reconnaissance files about her: Hero of the Skyllian Blitz, talented officer and charismatic leader—one of the best in the Alliance.

And now, with _his _help, she could become the first human Spectre as well.

He closed the files; he'd read enough. A heroic soldier who had both biotic and tech talents? He was definitely intrigued.

Whoever the other candidate was, he couldn't imagine that they could be any more promising. It would have been unfair of him, however, to not even glimpse at the second file before he made his choice, so he opened up the folder to take a quick look.

His lips stretched into a wide grin when he read the name. Well, well. It appeared that little Garrus had grown up and was ready to play Spectre now.

He wondered what the older Vakarian thought of his son's decision. Bau still remembered the arguments he used to have with his ex-partner about the near-absolute powers of Council Spectres, as well as the less than amicable manner they'd parted ways when he'd quit C-Sec for his own training.

Regardless of their history, his job at the moment was to make an unbiased assessment of the two candidates, so he buried himself in the files and absorbed every detail about what Garrus Vakarian had been up to all these years.

**~ooo~**

The salarian leaned back in his chair with a sigh. This decision had turned out to be much harder than he'd anticipated.

Though Garrus did not quite have the same amount of special training and battle experience that Commander Shepard did, he unquestionably deserved to be a candidate for Spectre training. According to these documents, besides having an admirable track record as a young detective in C-Sec's Investigation Division, he was also a top-ranked hand-to-hand specialist, an excellent sharp-shooter, and a talented tech expert.

Bau picked up the mug that had been sitting abandoned by his console, and took a slow slurp of the now-cold tea. This was indeed a difficult choice. As much as he looked forward to working with the human commander, he had an almost irrational urge to take young Vakarian under his wing. Not only for the outstanding abilities and sense of integrity the turian had exhibited, but also because, despite Bau's best efforts to disregard his past with his former C-Sec partner, he couldn't help but feel a small tickle of glee in his chest at the possibility of training Taius Vakarian's own son to become exactly what the old curmudgeon had always riled against.

A soft chuckle escaped Jondum's lips and his eyes lit up when a radical idea took hold of his brain. He placed his drink down on his desk again and tapped on the interface to put in a call to Councilor Tevos.

The asari's face soon came into view. "Spectre Bau," she greeted him with a slight tip of her head, "have you made a decision?"

Bau couldn't hold back the grin as he gave her the news. "Yes. I'm going to take both."

**~ooo~**

Commander Shepard had just about had enough of this day. First it was the Council giving her the runaround about her upcoming Spectre training, then Udina had to drag her into his office to lecture her about her "insolent behavior", and now this. She took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut for a second to try to calm her nerves before she was going to explode.

It didn't help.

"How can they be gone already?" she burst out, staring daggers at the shopkeeper across the counter. "Didn't these just come in today?"

Etarn Tiron opened his arms in what he hoped was a placating gesture. The commander had dropped enough credits in his store on her previous visits to the Citadel to make her one of his best customers, and he wasn't keen on losing his good standing with her over a sniper rifle mod, no matter how state-of-the art it was. "Yes, they did, but we only received a few. It's a brand new item—highly sought after. The gentleman that was leaving just as you came in? He bought the last one. I'm sorry."

"Dammit." Shepard let out an annoyed puff of air as she glanced over her shoulder. Yes, she remembered the turian in the blue armor. She'd bumped into him in the doorway when he was leaving the store just as she finally got to Rodam Expeditions. She'd had no idea what treasure he was getting away with when he brushed by her and went on his merry way. And of course, he was long gone by now.

She threw a wistful glance at the kiosk's display. She'd really wanted to get her hands on that piece of new tech. It was a thermal scope that was supposed to reveal enemies through walls and smoke, and she'd had her eye on it ever since it had been announced by the manufacturer's research department.

"I've put in a new order for another shipment," Etarn said, trying to sound as encouraging as he could. "Since it's a novel item, supplies are limited and it might take a while to get them, but I'm confident that we can outfit you with this model as soon as possible."

The commander shook her head with a sigh. "I don't know how much longer I'll be here. And I really could have used it now. But I'll check again whenever I'm back on the station."

She gave a sad nod to her favorite shopkeeper and walked out of the store. She really, _really_ needed a drink right now. Or two. Or several—whatever it took to make this shitty day at least a little bit better.

**~ooo~**

"Hit me," Shepard said, slurring her words slightly, as she blinked up with unfocused eyes at the turian. The bartender unscrewed the top of the bottle and poured some more of that green liquid into her glass. She sent it down the hatch with a grimace, slammed the glass down, then slumped over the counter again, leaning an elbow on the bar and holding her head up with one hand.

This sucked. Hanging out aimlessly on the Citadel, waiting for the Council to get their act together while her friends and crew were off doing actual missions, was not the way she'd imagined this whole Spectre business. She wished she was back on the _Normandy. _She missed the action, the excitement, her friends—it was hard to believe, but she even missed their pilot's snarky attitude and bad jokes.

Her eyes wandered around the room. If at least there were some Alliance soldiers here on shore leave, she could join them for the evening. It would sure beat drinking alone.

Dark Star Lounge was definitely filling up, but she didn't see any human military personnel; what she did see, however, was a familiar turian in blue armor, drinking with his buddies at the far end of the counter.

Her hand tightened on her glass as she remembered how that jerk had snatched up the last MX-117. _Her mod. _He probably didn't even know how special that thing was. Her eyes narrowed as she watched him down his drink and clap another turian on the shoulder. Their little group burst into laughter at something he said, which only served to irritate her even more. Funny guy, huh? That asshole.

At her gesture, the bartender filled her glass again. She was about to pour the burning liquid down her throat when a light bulb went off, shining brightly, in her head. Maybe she could buy the damn thing off him. She could offer him a price that was more than what he'd paid; surely he would want to make a profit, wouldn't he?

Happy with her new battle plan, she picked up her glass and sauntered over to the group, trying very hard not to trip over her own feet on her way there. Luckily, she managed to make it without spilling too much of her drink.

She sidled up to her target's side and gave him a bright smile. "Hi."

He blinked at her with his beady little eyes and murmured a "Hello" before he turned back to his friends.

Shepard tried to come up with some witty things she could say before she'd throw her brilliant idea at him, but she came up empty. She was a soldier, damn it, not a politician; besides, he didn't exactly make it easy for her to chat him up.

To hell with it; she decided to just come out with her offer and get this over with. "Hey," she said, tapping him on the shoulder. "I have a proposition for you."

He turned back towards her with an annoyed sigh. "I'm not interested."

Shepard's eyebrows pulled into a frown. "You don't even know what I was going to suggest."

The turian's mandibles flared out, showcasing his sharp teeth, and his eyes slid up and down her body with what looked like a totally inappropriate smirk. "I'm pretty sure I do. But like I said, I'm not interested. Sorry, but I'm not into humans."

Her eyes went wide and her jaw hung open for a second at his ridiculous insinuation. Yes, she was out of her armor, wearing a rather form-fitting set of shirt and pants—an early morning decision on her part that she started to really regret now—but still, that didn't give him the right to talk to her like that.

She leaned closer with a snarl. "I'm not into turians either, you asshole. I wouldn't be interested in _you _if you were the last man alive. Or turian. Whatever." She rubbed the back of her neck with a sigh. This wasn't exactly going like she'd planned it. "Look, all I want is that sniper rifle mod you got at Rodam Expeditions. I'm willing to pay double price for it."

He seemed to digest this new information for a moment before he shook his head. "Still not interested."

His friends laughed, he turned away from her, and Shepard had to dig her nails into the palms of her hands to prevent herself from throwing the bunch of them straight across the room.

"Idiots," she growled as she marched out of the bar, her biotics crackling an impotent blue around her clenched fists.

**~ooo~**

By the time she got back to her hotel room, all she wanted was to take a shower, get under the covers, and sleep. This day couldn't end soon enough.

She kicked off her shoes and was about to head to the bathroom when her omni-tool went off with a ping. She fired up the interface and sat down in the armchair by the window to read the message.

Halleluiah. Finally some good news. Spectre training was starting the next morning, and she was to meet Jondum Bau at his ship at Docking Bay D-36.

Her lips pressed into a thin line as she read the rest of the note: in an unprecedented gesture, the Spectre was taking on two candidates to train at once.

There were also a few files included about the other person, and Shepard wasted no time opening them up.

Her heart nearly froze in her chest when she saw the picture of the other candidate. Her future teammate was none other than that insufferable, obnoxious, mod-snatching turian dick in the blue armor.

Her shoulders slumped and she dropped her head into her hands with a groan.

It was official: the universe really, truly, absolutely hated her.


	2. A Few Simple Tests

_A/N: Thank you all for the encouraging reviews, the favorites and the follows! I'm glad you liked the premise of this story and the first chapter. I hope you'll like this one, too. :)_

_Big thanks to Tuffet37 and KabiViolet for their help and to KabiViolet for beta reading. _

* * *

Shepard took one last look around the hotel room before she picked up her bags and walked through the door. She'd had more than enough of this place; besides, she had no intentions of being late—especially on her first day of Spectre training.

Traffic was still light this early in the morning, and she made excellent time in her rented skycar to the upper level of the docks. All she needed now was that damn elevator. Her fingers drummed out an impatient beat on her folded arms as she waited, and once the doors finally slid open with a soft chime, she hurried into the cabin and wasted no time reaching for the control panel to start the long ride down.

Her hand froze in the air when a voice called out from the lobby, asking her to wait, and after a moment of hesitation, she reluctantly grabbed the door to keep it open. She instantly regretted her decision when a tall turian rushed in, coming to an abrupt stop by her side.

_Of course _it had to be him. So much for trying to get there before _he_ did.

Her unexpected travel-mate gave her a small nod. "Shepard."

So, he'd read her file. Well, that was to be expected—after all, she'd read his.

"Vakarian," she grunted. She pressed the button for Level D, and the elevator started its downward trek with a lurch.

They rode in silence for a while, which was more than fine with her, until she noticed from the corner of her eye that the turian had turned his head in her direction. He appeared to be studying her for a few moments before he made a statement.

"You're a biotic."

"Yes," she replied tersely, her gaze stubbornly fixed ahead. There was no reason to encourage Captain Obvious with any eye contact.

"Then why do you even need the MX-117?"

Shepard forced out an annoyed huff of air from her lungs. "Well, let's see... It has improved scoping distance, better stability, and oh, yes, it can see through smoke and walls. You're right," she shook her head, "why would anybody want that?"

"But most biotics don't use sniper rifles," he pressed on, ignoring the sharp bite in her tone.

She shrugged. "This one does."

"Hmm." He was quiet for a few seconds as he seemed to mull over her answer. "Maybe we could have a little shooting contest sometime."

She finally glanced up at him. "Maybe we could. As long as it's not through smoke or a wall."

He snorted in amusement, and they spent the rest of the ride in silence. When the elevator jerked to a stop and the doors slid open with a hiss, they exited the cabin together and walked side by side to bay D-36.

**~ooo~**

Bau narrowed his eyes and let out an occasional 'Huh' as he went through the shipping manifest, carefully checking off every item on the list against the various boxes and crates that were piled up around him at the bottom of the entrance ramp that led up to his ship.

The delivery crew coughed and fidgeted nervously as they waited for him to sign off on the merchandise, but he pretended not to notice. Everything was in order, but they didn't need to know that yet. Making people uncomfortable and keeping them on their toes wasn't something he particularly enjoyed, but it had the benefit of ensuring that they did their best to perform up to his expectations—and, occasionally, even beyond that.

"Good," he finally said as he added his signature to the document and handed the datapad back to the crew foreman.

A clearly audible sigh of relief shuddered through the group, and they hurried off before the Spectre could find something to complain about. The boxes still needed to be moved into the storage rooms, but Bau had other people in mind for that task.

He didn't have to wait long; his new students showed up a few minutes later.

The fact that they came together was a bit surprising. He wondered if, despite his research, which had not indicated any previous affiliation between the two, they had, in fact, known each other beforehand. A thorough observation of their body language, however, as they strode towards him without a word, keeping as much space between them as they could, seemed to contradict this new hypothesis.

Maybe they'd decided to meet up after they'd received their assignments. Or they just happened to arrive at the same time this morning—either way, it was rather convenient to have them here together and be able to talk to them at once. This group training thing was going to work out just fine.

"Ah, Commander Shepard, Officer Vakarian," he greeted them with a small smile when they got closer. "I see you've met already. Excellent. My name is Jondum Bau. I'll be your mentor during your training program. And this," he gestured proudly at the vessel behind him, "is the _Inandra. _It's going to be your home for the next few weeks."

"Spectre," Shepard said, extending her hand in the familiar human gesture. Bau took the offered appendage and gave it a firm squeeze and a shake.

Vakarian merely nodded at him politely. His blue eyes, sharp and intense, seemed to evaluate the salarian from head to toe, just like any good detective would. Bau wondered if Garrus knew about the history between himself and his father. The young turian didn't say anything, though, and Bau decided to keep the information to himself for now.

"Follow me," he said, turning towards the airlock. "I'll show you to your quarters so you can put your bags down."

**~ooo~**

Crew quarters consisted of one room with a few bunk beds, lockers, a table and a couple of chairs—rather usual for a ship of this size, but not quite what Shepard had hoped for.

Not like she hadn't had to sleep in the same room with a dozen other sweaty and snoring marines before, but, as an officer of the _Normandy, _she hadn't had to deal with such privacy issues in quite a long time. Besides, those were Alliance soldiers; she'd never had to share accommodations with an alien before—especially not with someone as annoying as this turian.

Vakarian, however, didn't seem to care one way or another about the sleeping arrangements. He walked over to one of the beds and tossed his bags on the mattress, claiming the space for himself. Shepard followed his example, choosing one of the lower bunks on the opposite wall. It was as far away from him as possible.

"Very good," Bau said, giving them a nod of approval. "Now, please come with me."

He turned around and marched out of the ship and down to the pile of supplies at the bottom of the ramp.

"Here," he thrust two datapads at his students when they'd caught up with him, "this is a requisitions list for our trip. No mission, no matter how big or small, can succeed without adequate supplies and equipment. Your job at the moment is to verify that every single thing on this list has been delivered. Once you're satisfied with the results, make sure that all these crates are safely stowed away in the storage rooms on the lower level of the ship. Report to me when you're done."

Without waiting for an answer, he turned on his heels and left his trainees to their task. Shepard shot a quick glance at her turian teammate, which he reciprocated with a very human-looking shrug. She fired up the interface and began the tedious task of going through the items one by one. This wasn't exactly what she'd expected on her first day with the Spectre, but if this was what it took for them to finally lift off and leave the station, then she was going to be the best damn inventory-checker Bau had ever seen.

She couldn't help but wonder what kind of a mission they were about to embark on; apparently the salarian had ordered enough food, ammunition and medical supplies to sustain a small army for months out there in space.

He was certainly a very thorough shopper, and a rather attentive one at that: he had ordered an abundant supply of food and field rations, plenty of dextro fare for Vakarian, and even a few extras for her. She was definitely grateful for the ample quantities of coffee that were hidden in one of these containers.

Garrus, however, didn't quite seem to share her enthusiasm about the amount of provisions they had to catalogue—not to mention carrying them onto the ship.

"Just how much food do you eat?" he blurted out, sizing up his human companion. He could not imagine where all those calories were going; while she wasn't the smallest of her kind he'd ever seen, she certainly wasn't the biggest either.

She stopped what she was doing and glared up at him over the datapad in her hands. "Enough to fuel my biotics. Throwing people around takes a bit more energy than sitting back behind cover and sniping the enemy from afar."

Garrus turned back to his inventory with a shrug. He grumbled something about it still being a lot of food, which Shepard chose to ignore, and they went on with their task without another word.

**~ooo~**

It took the better half of an hour, but they finally finished cataloguing every single item on the list. The order had come in perfectly, without even a single ration bar missing; the only task left now was to get all these boxes and crates into the storage rooms.

"This is going to take a while," Garrus said, tilting his head to the side as he carefully studied the mess around them. "You're a biotic; can't you levitate them onto the ship?"

Shepard raised her eyes to the ceiling with a sigh. "Jesus, Vakarian," she groaned, "that's not how this works. I was trained to cause a maximum amount of damage to an enemy, not gently float stuff along a path."

Well, to be honest, that was only half the truth. She did have an instructor once, an asari, who'd made a noble attempt to teach her how to better control her powers, but Shepard had never really been one for subtlety in her line of work. Besides, she just couldn't see the point of carefully lifting an item up into the air with her biotics, then depositing it in another location without causing as much as a scratch to the object or the environment around it. Until now. Maybe she should have practiced more.

"You've never even tried?" Garrus pressed on. Damn his detective instincts.

Shepard's brows pulled into a frown. Admitting to a lack of skill wasn't high on her list of things to do, especially not when it came to the turian, but his eyes were watching her so intently that she felt compelled to come out with the truth. "Actually," she said, rubbing the back of her neck, "I have. The results weren't pretty."

His mandibles flared out into a toothy grin before his gaze fell back onto the boxes at their feet. His expression immediately soured. "We have to figure out something else then. I'd rather not spend the whole day hauling this stuff onto the ship."

"Maybe we could find some kind of a cart around here?" she suggested. "It's a docking bay, after all."

Garrus's eyes lit up. "Hmm. Give me a second." He raised his left arm and started up the command interface on his omni-tool.

"What are you doing?"

"I have an idea."

**~ooo~**

Bau looked up from the star chart in front of him at the sound of loud clanking and an occasional _'Excuse me'_ to find a procession of C-Sec LOKI mechs carrying the supply containers onto the ship, with Shepard and Garrus following close behind. His students seemed to be monitoring the robots' progress and giving them instructions from their omni-tools as the strange little group slowly made its way to the elevator.

He watched them disappear behind the corner, then picked up a datapad and began to type.

_First phase of training going exceptionally well. Candidates exhibiting high level of cooperation and resourcefulness. Second phase to commence shortly._

**~ooo~**

Once all the supplies were on board and Garrus had directed the mechs back to the warehouse he'd sprung them from, Bau fired up the engines and they finally left the station.

After taking his students on a short trip around the ship, the Spectre shoved two datapads into their hands, asserting that, when out on a mission alone, they'd need to know every little detail about their craft.

Shepard and Garrus spent the rest of the morning studying the schematics of the _Inandra._

Jondum Bau's ship turned out to be one of the best-equipped corvettes Shepard had ever seen. It wasn't the newest model, but it had been extensively fortified with state-of-the-art armor, shields, and weapons, which, judging by the scorch marks on its hull, must have come in quite handy on numerous occasions.

The layout was similar to other vessels of its kind: the upper deck included the cockpit, the galley kitchen and small mess hall, the bathroom and the crew quarters, as well as the captain's cabin. This last one Bau seemed to be using as his center of operations, with its bank of computer terminals lining one wall and a wide desk, covered by datapads, occupying the other.

The lower level housed the engines and the storage rooms, one of which had been converted into a workout area.

"Some missions take a long time, and Spectres need to keep in shape!" Bau had explained enthusiastically when he'd showed them around. "We have a treadmill, a punching bag, a selection of weights, and there are also some mats in the corner for floor exercises. I hope you'll make good use of them."

All in all, this new assignment and this new ship didn't seem too bad so far. Now if only her turian teammate were less annoying, Shepard would be all set.

**~ooo~**

"What the hell have you done?" Garrus's frustrated voice came rumbling through Shepard's comm as she desperately tried to find the cause of the power fluctuations.

After the lectures about the ship's systems and a small lunch, Bau had put Garrus on cockpit duty and Shepard into the engine room to "get a little practice working on their own." Everything had been going so well until now—the engines had hummed along peacefully, the heat sinks had discharged according to schedule, and the thrusters had been pushing them along to their destination without a glitch.

Then something happened, the alarms started blaring, the power kept dropping out and coming back on, then dropping out again, and one of the thrusters just plain stopped working. Shepard rushed from control panel to control panel, feverishly typing in commands and pushing buttons, putting out fires in one area only to have more start up somewhere else—all the while trying to ignore the turian's yelling in her ear.

"I've lost power to my console, dammit!" Garrus growled. "If you get us all killed, Shepard, I'll be very, very pissed. Get it sorted out. Now."

"I'm working on it!" she barked out as she entered in the last command line and slammed her fist onto the button to reset the electrical system. Finally, the power came back on and everything went quiet again. She collapsed onto the bench by the drive core and wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand.

"Good job, Shepard," Bau's voice rang out over the comm sytem.

"Thanks." She blew out a deep breath and hoped that the rest of her shift would go without any further incident.

Fortunately, it did.

**~ooo~**

She went for a run on the treadmill after dinner, then locked herself in the bathroom and took a shower before she put on her sleeping shirt and shorts. She had no idea how noisy a roommate Vakarian was going to be, so she went to bed early, hoping that he wasn't going to wake her up with his snoring.

He must have been pretty quiet, because she slept through the whole night without any interruptions. By the time she opened her eyes in the morning, he was already gone.

She got dressed and brushed her hair, then trudged out to the kitchen to have breakfast. Garrus was just finishing his meal as she set about making her coffee.

"Bau said that you'll be on cockpit duty today," he informed her. "I'll be in the engine room. I'll show you how it's done," he added, flaring his mandibles in a cheeky smirk.

Shepard gave him a noncommittal grunt, and he got up to put his dishes into the dishwasher.

The role reversal was just fine with her; after the previous day's excitement she didn't mind a few quiet hours of sitting in the pilot's chair and watching the stars fly by through the large window.

Things did go well for a while. She leaned back in the comfortable leather chair, monitoring their progress along the flight path, and made adjustments to their course whenever it was necessary. The view around her was spectacular, and for a moment she wondered why she'd never paid much attention to these gorgeous colors of deep space before.

Of course, most of the time she'd be either reading or writing mission reports, talking with the crew or dealing with problems on the _Normandy; _there really wasn't that much time just to stand around the cockpit and admire the view. But maybe she should—whenever she was going to get back to _her _ship and _her _crew.

She couldn't help but chuckle, though, at the thought of the exasperated glances Joker might give her if she started to hang out in his lair regularly. He didn't like backseat drivers very much, as he'd informed her a few times already.

Her fuzzy thoughts were rudely interrupted by the sudden, harsh sound of a klaxon going off in the confined space. The lights flickered wildly, her console went dark then came back on, only to flash a warning about losing thrusters and veering off course.

"Shit," she groaned as she desperately tried to get everything back online. Bau's "state-of-the-art" ship was turning more and more into a lemon.

But the worst thing was Garrus's yelling in her ear—again.

"The hell are you doing? I've just calibrated this thing to maximum performance after your little stint here yesterday!"

"Dammit, Vakarian!" she yelled back. "Why don't you pull that stick out of your ass for once! I didn't touch anything. You must have screwed up something with your _'calibrations'_."

He didn't answer, but she could hear him move around in the engineering room through her comm, cussing under his breath as he typed furiously one moment, then tore some panels open and moved a few cables around the next. All power went down for a while, then the ship came back alive with a shudder, and just like the day before, everything finally went back to normal.

Things were quiet from then on, but when the group met up for lunch a few hours later, Garrus still seemed to be fuming.

"You must have done something to the circuitry yesterday," he grumbled as he stabbed a piece of meat on his plate. "Everything was fine until you went on duty in engineering."

"I fixed whatever the problem was!" she protested. "There was nothing wrong until you started poking around there today_. 'Calibrations' _my ass!"

"Ahem," Bau cleared his throat, calling the warring parties' attention to himself. "Actually, it was me. I sabotaged the system."

Garrus's fork froze in the air and Shepard's jaw dropped open at this new piece of information. They both stared at the Spectre as if he'd grown another set of horns.

"Why?" Shepard finally blurted out.

"It was a test. I wanted to see how well you coped if you got caught with some engine trouble and electrical problems out here in space, all alone. I'm glad to say that you both did very well."

"So the ship's been fine the whole time?" Garrus asked.

"Of course." Bau waved his hand dismissively. "I've never seen a more reliable vessel than the _Inandra."_

"Well... that's, uh, good to know," the turian ground out, his eyes darting over at Shepard for a quick glance. He did _not _look impressed. In fact, she could have sworn that she heard a faint growl coming from his direction.

Bau, however, either didn't notice, or didn't care. He simply got up form his chair, strolled into his room, then came out with two datapads, which he distributed among his students.

"All right. Now that we're done with that, you can start studying our mission parameters."

Shepard grabbed the pad and quickly scanned the first few lines.

...

_Target: Vido Santiago, co-founder and de facto leader of the Blue Suns._

_Location: Zorya, Eldfell-Ashland Refinery._

_Objective: Free the enslaved workers and arrest Santiago._

_..._

She almost jumped up and pumped a fist in the air. Finally, a real mission. She could hardly wait.


	3. Zorya

_**A/N: **__Thank you all for the reviews, favorites and follows!_

_Big thanks to Tuffet37 and KabiViolet for being my sounding boards/advisors and to KabiViolet for beta reading._

* * *

With its blue skies and lush vegetation, Zorya seemed deceptively pleasant at first.

Bau had landed the ship at a respectable distance from the refinery, hoping that it was far enough to avoid alerting the Blue Suns to their presence, and they'd been silently creeping along the forest path that was supposed to lead to their destination for the last twenty minutes.

The oppressive heat and the overabundance of eye-watering spores that floated freely through the air began to make progress a bit more difficult, but Shepard pushed on, periodically wiping the sweat off her forehead and blinking it out of her eyes.

Bau had taken point, relentlessly stalking through the undergrowth, with Shepard and Garrus following a few steps behind. They stopped every so often to check for security cameras or hidden guards, but had found none so far. That was good news; attempting to eliminate the mercenaries that had taken over the facility, capturing their leader, and freeing the hostages in one swell swoop was a risky operation, and the longer they could stay undetected, the better their chances were for success.

According to Bau's map, however, they were getting close enough now to come upon at least a guard or two, but everything was so quiet that Shepard couldn't shake the feeling that something was not right. The only living creatures they'd encountered until now were a few pyjaks that had scurried away upon their approach.

"I don't like this," Garrus murmured. "It's too peaceful here. I feel like we're walking into a trap."

Shepard nodded, but kept her eyes fixed ahead. "Agreed."

Bau came to a stop and brought up the interface of his omni-tool. "I can attempt to hack into their communications and see what they're up to," he said as he tapped on a few holographic keys. "There. I got it."

"Get out there and take care of them!" a voice, obviously used to giving orders that he expected to be followed without a word, bellowed in their ears as they tuned their comm channels to the frequency the Spectre had indicated. "If any of you retreat while the intruders are still alive, I'll kill you myself!"

"That's Vido Santiago," Bau said. "It appears that they know we are here."

Garrus raised his gun and scanned the area through the scope. "Nice guy."

Bau shook his head and turned off his omni-tool. "Not really. Move out and keep your eyes open."

**~ooo~**

They found the first bodies a few minutes later.

"These are old," Bau said as they examined the decomposing remains. "Santiago likes to leave his victims exposed to the elements as a deterrent."

"Charming," Shepard muttered under her breath.

"Not like I'd expect much from the head of a merciless gang like the Blue Suns," Garrus grunted, "but this is low. Can't wait to give this bastard what he deserves."

Bau left the corpses and started up the trail again. "First we have to get there. Let's continue."

As quiet as this forest seemed to be, the presence of the dead bodies was a clear indication that they were, indeed, in Blue Suns territory now. They cautiously pressed on, ready for an ambush at any moment, but came to an abrupt stop when the loud crack of a rifle shattered the peaceful silence. It seemed to have come from the direction they were heading, not too far from their location, and was quickly followed by the barrage of what sounded like an assortment of assault weapons and rocket launchers—and yelling. Lots of yelling.

Then, just as quickly as the battle had started, it ended, and everything fell silent again.

Bau slowly straightened up from the crouched position he'd dropped down into at the first sign of trouble. "Hmm. It appears that the guards already have a situation on their hands. This might make things a bit easier for us. Well," he added, scratching a spot above his right eye, "provided it's not an all-out assault by a rival merc band. That might actually complicate things a bit."

"It wasn't a long fight," Shepard pointed out. "It sounded more like a skirmish between two smaller groups."

Garrus loosened his tight grip on his gun, but kept it at the ready as he peered at the trail up ahead. "Or between a larger force and a small contingent. Either way, I guess we'll find out soon enough."

"Indeed." Bau waved a hand at the path and they crept on, listening for any more signs of trouble, but all they could hear was the sound of leaves fluttering in the wind and pyjaks' feet skittering on the ground.

It didn't take long before they reached the site of the battle. Whoever it was that had infiltrated the Blue Suns' territory, they clearly knew what they were doing. Every single body on the ground, broken and bloodied, wore the blue-and-white armor of Vido's mercenaries, but there was no sign of the invading party.

"Impressive," Garrus said as he examined the scene. "Not one loss for the other side."

"Professionals," Bau agreed. "Clean shots to the head. Signs of biotic powers as well." He pointed at a corpse that seemed to have been ripped apart by an unknown force.

Shepard's forehead crinkled into a frown. "Eclipse, maybe?"

"We'll see." The Spectre signaled for them to move out, and they followed him down the trail.

According to the map, they were getting really close now.

**~ooo~**

With the guards occupied (if not outright dead), their chances of getting caught in an ambush had significantly diminished. They picked up pace, abandoning their careful approach, and arrived at the gate house in time to catch a glimpse of the mystery intruders.

The fact that they turned out to be a small, two-person team was more than a little surprising.

"That's it? Two men caused all that damage?" Garrus whispered as they inched closer.

Shepard took a careful look through her rifle's scope. "One man and one woman, actually."

"That's a woman? But she doesn't have any uh, hair."

"It's shaved off."

"And what's that... thing on her body?"

The commander shot him a perplexed glance. "Clothes?"

She was actually being generous; the woman was wearing nothing but a pair of low-riding pants and a strap around her chest, but Shepard refused to acknowledge that small detail.

"I mean that colorful thing all over her skin."

"Oh. You mean the tattoos?"

"Shh." Bau raised a closed fist as he settled down behind a large rock and waved at the two chatterboxes to get in cover and stay there—quietly, if at all possible. "That's Vido Santiago," he whispered. He pointed to a balcony on the second floor, filled with Blue Suns, their guns aimed squarely at the people below. "He's the one without the helmet; the one who's talking to the intruders."

They watched and listened as the two parties hurled insults at each other. Eventually, the man in the yellow armor took off running to the left, raising his weapon and spraying the wall behind the mercs with a volley of bullets. As soon as he was in cover, he fired off another shot, and the gas seeping out of the punctured pipe exploded with a thunderous boom, sending a few of the mercs toppling over the rail and seriously injuring the others.

"You just signed your death warrant, Massani," Santiago growled and limped off, holding his side as blood trickled out through his fingers and painted his armor red.

"Massani." Bau rolled the name around in his head. "Ah, yes. Zaeed Massani. Co-founder of the Blue Suns. Santiago tried to have him murdered when he took over the leadership. He's probably here for revenge."

Within seconds, the space inside the gatehouse erupted into chaos as both groups opened fire and Massani hammered a valve with the butt of his rifle until he set off a chain reaction of explosions that incinerated the rest of the mercs. Unfortunately, it also set the whole place on fire.

"What the hell is he doing?" Garrus grumbled as they watched the smoke fill the air and billow out through the door.

"How should I know?" Shepard shrugged. "I'm not the one with the thermal scope. I can't see a thing."

"I think they're gone," Bau said when the screams had stopped. "We'd better follow them if we want to capture Santiago before Massani kills him."

"It wouldn't exactly be a loss," Garrus murmured. Shepard couldn't help but agree.

Bau shook his head. "He needs to stand trial for his crimes." He walked through the door and into the building, and they followed him through the smoke.

**~ooo~**

They were going to shadow Massani and his accomplice, letting those two eliminate as many of the mercs as they were able to on their way to Santiago, then incapacitate them once they got too close to actually killing their target. Afterwards, the three of them would finish the job, capture the Blue Suns' leader, tell the workers that they were free to go, and get out of there as quickly as they could.

The plan would have worked beautifully, if not for the unfortunate fact that Massani's little stunt and the resulting explosions had ruptured the gas pipes, and by now the whole refinery was on fire.

Even _that_ might have been a negligible obstacle, especially with Garrus's thermal scope pointing the way through the flames and the thick smoke. What they hadn't counted on, however, was the workers getting trapped behind the automatically-sealed doors, unable to shut off the valves and escape the inferno.

"New variable," Bau hummed, rubbing his chin, as one of the workers that had run out onto a catwalk to beg for their help stood above them, gripping the rail and looking down with pleading eyes. "Stopping now to free these people would mean losing precious time. Santiago might get away, or Massani might execute him before we catch up. Continuing with our pursuit, on the other hand, would most certainly condemn the workers to an agonizing death. Which path would you take?"

His large eyes darted from Shepard to Garrus as he waited for their answers. The situation was unfortunate, but it provided him with an unexpected chance to assess the decision-making skills and moral compass of the candidates—something that was rather important when you considered granting nearly unlimited power to someone who might have to make similar life-and-death judgments in the future.

"Save the workers," Shepard said without hesitation.

Vakarian glanced up at the waiting man. As much as he was looking forward to capturing Santiago, sacrificing innocent lives for that satisfaction was—as far as he was concerned—out of the question. "I agree."

The Spectre gave them an approving nod. "I concur. Let's go save some lives then."

**~ooo~**

It took some running around in the dark, dodging the blaze and the falling debris, but eventually they managed to divert the fuel from the pipes and turn on the fire extinguishing system. With the flames sizzling out, the doors finally opened, and they watched with relief through a thick glass window as the workers fled the building.

As soon as the hostages were gone, Bau brought up his omni-tool to check his map and figure out the most likely route their adversaries might have taken while _they_ were occupied with cleaning up the mess Zaeed Massani had left behind.

"They're probably heading to the landing pad," he said, his finger tracing the path on the glowing display above his arm. "If we follow these passages, we might be able to catch up."

They set out in the direction he'd indicated, down a flight of stairs, through some rooms, and along a few short corridors. The rattle of gunfire that periodically shook the structure was a strangely reassuring sign that the battle was still raging inside. Nevertheless, there was no time to dilly-dally now, so they hurried on, ignoring the occasional dead bodies littering the ground on their way to their objective.

They finally caught up with the warring parties in the large cargo handling area that lead to the landing docks.

The room was filled with angry shouts and the ear-shattering crackle of high-caliber bullets hitting their mark or ricocheting off the containers and equipment that filled the room. Massani and his partner were vastly outnumbered, but that didn't stop them from gaining the upper hand. They obviously had a well-established system of working together, the woman pulling whole groups of mercs out of cover with her biotics and floating them through the air, and Massani picking them off with his sniper rifle, or unloading a volley of bullets into their immobilized bodies from his assault weapon.

The tattooed biotic seemed to enjoy the fight as she charged recklessly ahead, screaming something about killing them all as she hurled men, boxes and anything not bolted to the floor out of her way with her impressive powers.

"Jack!" Massani shouted as he leaped over one crate and dove behind another. "Watch your goddamn right flank!" He raised his gun and blasted an advancing merc right between the eyes before he could turn his flamethrower on the young woman, then tossed an incendiary grenade into a side corridor, setting a cluster of Blue suns that were just about to emerge into the large room on fire.

Jack shot a glance at Zaeed over her shoulder with a feral grin, then she popped out of cover and threw another group of men straight across the room.

"How do you plan on incapacitating these maniacs?" Garrus whispered to Bau as they sneaked behind a large container in the back.

The Spectre patted his omni-tool in an almost affectionate gesture. "I have a program that could paralyze them for a few seconds—it's similar to a statis field. I just need to be close enough. If they were next to each other and I could get them at the same time, that would be even better."

They stole forward towards Massani's position. With only a few Blue Suns left, the battle appeared to be winding down, and Bau opened up his omni-tool to prepare his program. Shepard and Garrus kept an eye on the enemy, but so far none of them seemed to have noticed their presence. Their luck ran out, however, when they got too close to a merc hiding behind a low wall to their left. He snapped his head in their direction and brought up his gun to fire, but before his finger had the chance to pull the trigger, he fell backwards with a thud and a hole in his head.

"Nice shot," Garrus said. He fired off a round of his own, taking out another man that had made the unfortunate mistake of peaking out of cover.

Shepard acknowledged the compliment with a nod. "Thanks. You, too."

Massani swirled around, looking for the source of the sudden backup, and muttered a curse under his breath when he noticed the salarian aiming his omni-tool at him. He jumped up and took off towards the exit, peppering a couple of Blue Suns with his assault rifle on his way.

"Jack! Come on!" he yelled. The two of them burst through the door, leaving the few people that were still standing behind.

"That is... unfortunate," Bau murmured, switching to his sidearm.

As it turned out, that was quite an understatement. It took them less than thirty seconds to clear out the room, but before they could make their way to the door, a metallic box that had been sitting ignored in the corner until now unfolded itself into a YMIR mech. It rose up, guns at the ready, and began a steady march towards Shepard's location.

"Ah, shit. I hate these things," she groaned as she dove behind a low barrier. She tried to set up an overload, but as soon as she attempted to lean out to get a clear line of fire, it would relentlessly bombard her position, its ammunition tearing chunks of metal off the crate and sending them flying over her head.

Yep, there was definitely a well-founded reason for her hatred towards these mechanical monstrosities.

Bau, however, managed to fry the thing's shields, which Garrus followed with a precise headshot. At the telltale sound of the imminent detonation, they crouched down, covering their heads. In a few seconds the mech exploded, and finally everything fell silent.

Garrus stood up. He rested the butt of his rifle against his hip as he glanced down at Shepard. "You can come out now," he drawled, his mandibles spread wide in a grin.

"The damn thing just wouldn't leave me alone," Shepard grunted as she straightened up. "It's like it had it in for me."

"I think you hurt its feelings," Garrus smirked.

Shepard wanted to scowl at him, but she couldn't hold back a small laugh. "I guess I did."

"No time for chit-chat," Bau reprimanded them as he headed towards the door. "Let's go."

**~ooo~**

Vido was still alive, but just barely. He half-knelt, half-lay on the ground, bleeding, begging for his life as he stared into the barrel of the gun Massani was pointing at his head.

It was immensely gratifying to see him like this, but Zaeed had had enough. He was about to pull the trigger when the salarian and his companions ran out of the building.

"Stop!" Bau yelled. "Drop your weapon."

Zaeed raised his gun and pointed it at the group. "Who the hell are you?" Jack, who'd been standing casually by, straightened up from her slouched stance and followed his example.

Shepard and Garrus reciprocated by turning their weapons on the tattooed biotic.

"Jondum Bau. Special Tactics and Recon. This man," Bau waved a hand at Santiago, "is under arrest on Spectre authority."

"I don't give a shit about your Spectre authority," Zaeed growled. "I've waited twenty years for this."

Vido's pleading eyes darted to the salarian. Jail, he could survive. A bullet to the head—not so much. "Help me," he rasped. "Please—he's going to kill me."

The Spectre ignored him and kept his gaze on Zaeed. "I know what Santiago did to you," he said, trying to sound sympathetic. "He deserves punishment. But he also has a long list of other offenses that he has to stand trial for. I can assure you that he won't get out of jail for a very, very long time."

Zaeed's eyes narrowed into angry slits as he leaned forward. "Don't care. He needs to die."

Bau shook his head. "If you kill him, I'll be forced to arrest you for murder."

Jack let out a derisive snort. "Pfft. I'd like to see you try."

Bau went on, paying no attention to the young woman's remark. "Frankly, I should arrest you for setting the refinery on fire and endangering the lives of the workers. But if you let Santiago go, I'll allow you to leave."

Massani lowered his gun to aim it at Vido's head again. "No."

The next moment everything happened at once. Bau quickly brought up his omni-tool in an attempt to paralyze the two humans, Shepard and Garrus swung their weapons in the old merc's direction, and Jack let out a blood-curdling scream as she hurled out a powerful shockwave.

**~ooo~**

Things went dark for a few seconds as they were thrown back several feet. By the time they came to, Massani and Jack were gone and Santiago lay motionless on the ground.

Shepard sat up with a groan and looked around for her companions. Bau had picked himself up already and was on his way over to Vido's body, but Garrus still lay on the concrete floor behind her, stunned and unmoving. She vaguely remembered him grabbing her when they were falling, cushioning her body from the impact as they hit the ground.

She leaned over him and gently patted his cheek. "Garrus. Garrus!"

He slowly opened his eyes and blinked up at her. "Shepard. Are you all right?"

She let out a relieved chuckle. "I'm fine. Turians make surprisingly efficient buffers from hard falls. You okay?"

He flexed his hands and feet. Everything seemed to be in working order, and he carefully pulled himself up into a sitting position. "Yeah." His blue eyes darted back to Shepard as his mandibles flared into a wide grin. "Glad to be of service."

"Over here," Bau called out, waving his arm. "He's still alive."

Garrus's eyebrow plates rose up in surprise. "Tough son of a bitch."

They stood up and walked over to Santiago's bleeding body.

Bau administered some medi-gel and took a few readings with his omni-tool. "He's severely injured, but he's still breathing," he said. "We can still take him into custody."

"Or we could just leave him," Garrus rumbled.

"I've explained it already," Bau sighed. "He has to stand trial for his crimes. However," he continued, standing up, "carrying his body to the ship might not be the best choice under the circumstances. I'm going to get the _Inandra_. I think this landing pad is big enough to touch down here. You two, stay here and make sure that Massani and his friend don't come back to finish the job." He gave them a small nod and walked away.

Shepard and Garrus watched him leave, then they exchanged a sullen look and settled down for the wait.


	4. A Little Help

_A/N: Thank you for the favorites and follows, and special thanks to Tuffet37, CyanB, Suilven, and geminidragon76 for leaving a review on the last chapter._

_Thank you to KabiViolet for beta reading._

* * *

Shepard walked over to a thick iron beam that Jack's shockwave had knocked down from the damaged building. It was scorched and rusty, but it provided a wide enough surface to sit on, so she lowered herself with a small groan and tried to get as comfortable as she possibly could. She reached inside one of her armor compartments, fished out a small nutrition bar, and tore its wrapper open.

She took a bite, chewed carefully, and swallowed the berry flavored mush before she turned her eyes on Garrus. "Would you really have left Santiago here?"

He glanced over at her. The heat sink he'd just picked up off the floor stilled in his hand as his gaze fell on the dry food she was shoving into her mouth. "Hungry already?"

She shrugged. "I have a high metabolism. As long as we have to wait here, I might as well refuel some of my energy." She pointed the remainder of the bar at him and waved it in the air disapprovingly. "But you didn't answer the question. Would you have left him here?"

His eyes drifted off into the distance as he pondered the issue for a moment. Finally, he looked back at her and cocked his head. "Since the objective was to arrest him, I suppose not. He sure would have deserved it, though. I just hate the idea of wasting resources on a bastard like him. He's almost dead anyway."

Shepard looked over at Santiago's body. His eyes were closed, but the bleeding had stopped and he appeared to still be breathing. "I know what you mean. I read his rap sheet. But there's always the possibility that he would survive, even without Bau's medi-gel. If his goons found him and nursed him back to life, he would just go back to murdering, kidnapping, and torturing people as if nothing had happened. If we take him into custody, he'll at least be put away for a long time."

Garrus shook his head as he pushed the heat sink into his rifle. "I'm not so sure about that. High-level criminals like him always have an army of high-paid lawyers at their disposal. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them was already at the docking port as soon as we arrive at the Citadel. Add a few corrupt officials into the mix, and you got yourself a case that will be contemptuous at best, and inadmissible at the worst."

"Sounds like you have some experience in that department."

"Yeah. I do."

Shepard waited for him to elaborate, but he stayed silent. He walked around the perimeter of the landing zone and scanned the surrounding area through his scope.

She finished her snack and stuffed the empty wrapper into a pocket, then stood up and strolled over to where he was standing. There was a sharp drop-off where the concrete floor ended, with rocks and dirt and dense vegetation below. "Did you see something?"

He lowered his gun and turned towards her. "No. I just have a bad feeling. I'd prefer not to get hurled across half this landing pad again." His mandibles flared out in a grin as he looked her up and down. "I don't know how much more abuse my armor can take if I have to catch you again. Especially if you keep eating like that."

"Ha. Funny." She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back on one leg. "You know, nobody asked you to do that. I'm perfectly capable of—"

"Shh." Garrus put up a hand and as he peered at the mountains in the distance. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" She cocked her head and listened. It took her a few seconds before she began to distinguish the buzzing sound of an engine from the background noise of the wildlife in the forest. "That... can't be Bau. It's coming from the wrong direction."

"Exactly."

They looked around, trying to find some cover. The area was wide open, except for a group of smaller crates towards the door. They'd have to crouch down behind them and hope that they wouldn't be too exposed, but it had to do.

They hunkered down and watched as a gunship rose up over the mountains and approached their location. It hovered in the air for a while, seemingly searching for something, or someone, before it drew closer.

"I don't think it's Massani and his friend," Shepard said. "I'm pretty sure whoever is in that ship has noticed Santiago's body, but they're not firing on him."

"Agreed. It's probably his own people. Maybe he called in for a rescue before Massani caught up with him."

Shepard tapped on her earpiece to tune into the channel Bau had hacked into earlier. "Let's see if there's any chatter on the radio."

Garrus followed her example and winced when a loud voice boomed in his ear canal.

"Boss! Boss! You all right?"

Shepard opened up her omni-tool to prepare an overload. "Yep. Blue Suns. I think we should blow up the ship before they land."

Garrus raised his sniper rifle and zoomed in on the engines. "You read my mind."

**~ooo~**

With the building empty and no more enemies to worry about in the forest, it took Bau less than half the time to walk back to his ship than it had originally taken them to get to the refinery.

His decision to bring Shepard and Vakarian along on this mission had turned out to be rather fortuitous. There was no way he could have dragged Santiago's body all the way to the ship by himself, and while he didn't really expect Massani and his companion to go back and put one more bullet in the merc leader's head, he still felt better leaving his team behind to guard their prisoner.

He fired up the engines in an excellent mood and turned the _Inandra _towards the refinery. In a few minutes the operation would be over, they would get off this planet and head to the Citadel, then Santiago would be taken into custody—all in all, this was shaping up to be an outstanding day.

He tapped on the communications button on his console and leaned back in his chair as the ship smoothly glided over the treetops. "En route now. Should be there in a couple of minutes."

"Good to hear!" Shepard's voice, urgent and out of breath, came over the speakers. "We could use some help. We're under attack and Garrus is hurt."

Bau sat up straight and leaned forward. He could hear the crackle of gunfire in the background, and it sounded like something thunderously loud had just exploded in the commander's vicinity—a rocket, perhaps?

"Shepard! Are you all right?"

There was a short pause, then more shots were fired before she answered. "I'm fine!"

Bau let out the breath that had gotten stuck in his lungs for a moment and slammed on the control panel to increase speed. "I'll be right there!"

He watched anxiously as the refinery came into view through the cockpit's window. There was definitely smoke rising from the area where he estimated the landing pad to be, though it was hard to know whether it was from the earlier blaze or from the firefight he'd just overheard.

He approached the site with shields up and the ship's weapons ready to fire, but by the time he got there, the battle appeared to be over. There was a smoldering pile of metal in the underbrush on the drop-off next to the landing zone, Santiago still lay motionless on the ground, and Shepard was administering medi-gel to Vakarian's wounds next to a mound of rubble by the door.

After circling around to make sure that there were no more enemies left to fight, Bau landed the ship and quickly disembarked.

He rushed over to his team and squatted down to check on their injuries. Their armor wore definite signs of damage, though Vakarian seemed to be worse off than Shepard. His left side was smeared with blue blood that had seeped out from a hole that had been torn in the softer material covering his waist, and there was a ragged, blood-stained gash in the joints of one of his leg guards.

Bau slid his gaze up to look into Vakarian's face. It was a little hard to know for sure with turians, but he did not seem to be in shock. "How bad is it?"

Garrus winced as Shepard spread the last layer of medi-gel over his exposed skin. "I'll live. That damned gunship took forever to go down. It had barriers _and _shields. Thorough bastards."

Shepard closed the tube in her hand. "He has some open wounds and burns. Not sure about any internal injuries. Might be a piece of shrapnel embedded in his leg, too." She waved an arm at the rubble around them. "What little cover we had was destroyed by the gunship's rockets. After that, it was hard to avoid being hit."

Bau gave a nod and stood up. "Help him onto the ship, then come back. We have to carry Santiago's body on board. They can both get medical attention on the Citadel."

Shepard assisted Garrus as he slowly stood up, and supported his weight as much as she could while she led him to the ship, her arm around his waist and his around her shoulder. He clenched his jaws as he limped up the ramp and through the ship, but didn't say a word until he lowered himself onto a chair in the small mess hall. "Thanks."

"No problem." She pulled out another chair and lifted his leg to let him prop his foot up on it, then hurried back out to help Bau bring Santiago aboard.

**~ooo~**

After they'd set up an extra cot in the mess for the still-unconscious merc leader, Bau rushed to the cockpit to plot the course to the mass relay while Shepard fixed herself a cup of tea in the kitchen.

She sat down by the table, resting her elbows on its smooth surface and cradling the mug in her hands as she kept an eye on Santiago—and Vakarian. The medi-gel had stopped the bleeding in Garrus's wounds, but he was uncharacteristically quiet, and he seemed to have trouble keeping his eyes open.

"Maybe you should take your armor off and lie down," she suggested.

He'd been nodding off, but now he lifted his head to focus his gaze on her. "Still trying to get me to bed, I see. I'm flattered, but really, I'm not interested. Like I said, I'm not into humans."

His mandibles fluttered and his blue irises twinkled with amusement as she shook her head and let out a mock groan. "You wish." Her half-smirk morphed into a serious expression as she leaned forward. "Seriously, you should go to bed."

"Shepard's right," Bau said as he entered the room. "You should lie down. It'll be a couple of hours before we arrive, anyway. In fact, both of you should go and take a rest. I'll stay here and watch Santiago."

Shepard considered the Spectre's words for a few moments before she stood up and walked over to Garrus's side. "Need some help from the undesirable human?"

He let out a small chuckle and pulled himself up, holding onto the tabletop as he lowered his injured leg onto the floor. He put an arm around her shoulder to help steady himself and peered down at her with a wide grin. "As long as you don't try anything."

"Don't worry. Like I said, _I'm_ not into turians."

With Shepard's help, he slowly hobbled to the crew quarters, and gave no argument when she assisted him with removing his armor. He took off his visor and laid it on the floor under the bed, then lay down and watched as Shepard peeled off her own gear then plopped down on top of the mattress across from his.

"Hey," he drawled. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

In less than thirty seconds they were both asleep.

**~ooo~**

Shepard's internal clock woke her up just as they were approaching the Citadel. She sat up and glanced over at Garrus. He was still asleep; in fact, it appeared that he hadn't moved at all since they'd hit the sack.

She slid out of her bed and crept closer to check if he was still breathing. He was, so she picked up her armor pieces as quietly as she could, and sneaked out of the room.

"Ah, Commander," Bau said when she entered the mess. "Glad to see you're awake. We're docking in about ten minutes. I have to go to the cockpit to handle the procedure; if Vakarian wakes up in the meantime, please tell him that a doctor is already at the docking port and will come on board to take a look at his injuries. I've also requested a stretcher and some C-Sec guards to take Santiago to a secure ward at Huerta Memorial. Hopefully Vakarian can be treated here and he won't have to go to the hospital, too, but I suppose we'll find out soon."

Shepard nodded in acknowledgement and watched as Bau left the room, then she sat down at the table and brought up her omni-tool to check for new messages. There were a few; one from Ashley, asking her if she'd kicked some butt yet; one from Kaidan, wishing her good luck on her first mission with the Spectre; and one from Conrad Verner, the creepy stalker she'd somehow managed to pick up after it had been announced that she was going to be the first human Spectre candidate. She deleted the message from Conrad without reading it, and was about to begin typing an answer to Ashley when the door to the crew quarters slid open and Vakarian staggered out in his scorched and bloody armor.

"I think you should have kept your armor off," Shepard said as she watched him limp over to the kitchen sink to get some water. "A doctor will have to examine you anyway."

He turned in her direction and gave her a disapproving grunt. "I'm not going to walk through the entire station in my undersuit."

"You won't have to. Bau has arranged for a doctor to come on board as soon as we dock. Which should be any minute now."

He gulped down the water and put the cup in the sink before he made his way to the table and gingerly sat down. "That's, uh, good."

She leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Yeah. At least I won't have to haul your ass all the way to the hospital. Unless, of course, you need more treatment. In which case maybe you could share the stretcher with Santiago that they're bringing in for him."

He chuckled and shook his head. "No, thanks. I'd rather limp there myself if I have to."

They spent the rest of the trip in comfortable silence, until the _Inandra _docked and the little entourage that had been waiting for their arrival came on board.

"This way," they heard Bau say over the noise of the heavy footsteps as the group approached the mess.

The first person to appear was a red-haired human woman with a doctor's bag in her hands. Her green eyes opened wide as her gaze fell on Garrus and his blood-stained armor, and she rushed over to his side without hesitation. "Garrus! Are you all right? I didn't know it was you who was injured!"

"Dr. Michel." Garrus nodded his head in greeting, and bit down a groan as she lifted his arm to take a better look at the wound on his torso. "Nice to see you."

Dr. Michel's face lit up. "Oh, it's nice to see you, too. I just wish it was under better circumstances." Her cheeks flushed deep red and her eyelashes fluttered nervously as she gave him a timid smile. "My offer still stands, you know. Maybe when you're better and not so busy, we could—"

Garrus let out an awkward cough. "Well, I'm not really on the Citadel nowadays, so..."

He wasn't sure why, but he shot a quick glance over at Shepard. Her eyebrows had risen higher on her forehead than he'd ever thought possible and her jaw hung slightly open, but she closed her mouth now with a quiet snap and her lips curled into a smirk as she caught his gaze. Her cheery expression did nothing to quell the cold dread that began to settle in his gut; there was no doubt in his mind that as soon as she had the chance, he was in for a relentless round of teasing. Great. Just great.

Dr. Michel, oblivious to Garrus's discomfort and the unspoken words between him and the woman at the table, stepped back and gestured at the door that led to the crew quarters. "Is that the sleeping area? I could examine you there in privacy."

He tried to ignore Shepard's snicker as Chloe Michel grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the room, and followed the doctor with a defeated sigh.

Spirits help him, he was definitely in for some scathing remarks later.

**~ooo~**

"How's Detective Vakarian?" Bau asked when the door slid open and Dr. Michel finally re-emerged. The nurses that had come with her had already checked Santiago's life signs, determined that it was safe to transport him, and transferred him onto the stretcher. Everybody'd been just waiting for her to depart.

"He'll be fine," she replied with a small smile. "I treated his wounds and removed a piece of shrapnel from his leg. There are no signs of any internal injuries, but he still needs to rest for a couple of days. I gave him some medication that he has to take every four hours to prevent infection and to lessen the pain. Please don't hesitate to contact me if there are any problems or concerns."

She walked over to the stretcher and looked down at the prisoner. "Is he ready to go?"

"Yes, he is," Bau announced before anybody else could get in a word. "Commander," he said, turning to Shepard, "I'm going with them to make certain that everything goes as it should. Please let Detective Vakarian know that if he wants to order a new set of undersuit or any armor replacements, he should do so immediately. The same goes for you." He handed her a credit chit that he'd loaded up with a respectable amount from his Spectre funds. "Request urgent delivery; I'll have to give my report to the Council, but afterwards, we'll be departing for Omega to take care of some business there."

Shepard gave him a nod. "Understood, Spectre."

"Good. Let's go."

The group filed out, leaving Shepard alone in the mess. She glanced at the bedroom door, but it stayed shut, so she got up and strolled into the crew quarters.

She found Garrus sitting on his bed in his underarmor. He glanced up as she stopped by the lockers and leaned against the metal surface, folding her arms in front of her chest and studying his state of undress with that infuriating smirk on her face.

"So," she started, "your girlfriend seems pretty nice."

He groaned and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and buried his face in his hands. "She's not my girlfriend. I told you, I'm not—"

"Into humans. Riiight."

He shook his head and stood up, mirroring her stance as he leaned against the bunk bed's post. "Well," he drawled, "I can't help it if she finds me so irresistible. Apparently, all humans do." His mandibles flared out into a toothy grin and he chuckled along with her when she rolled her eyes.

"Sure. Just keep telling that to yourself if it makes you feel better." She pushed away from the lockers and held out her hand with the credit chit in it. "Here. Bau said to order any replacement undersuit or armor you need. Request urgent delivery, because we'll leave pretty soon."

He took the chit and examined it. It was for a generous amount; more than enough for everything he might need. "Where are we going?"

"Omega."

"Why?"

"No idea. But I bet it'll be interesting."

She gave him a wink and left the room. She needed a shower and a meal; if Omega was going to be as eventful as Zorya had been, she definitely needed plenty of energy for the trip.


	5. Flexibility

_A/N: Thank you all for the favorites and follows, and special thanks to Tuffet37, KabiViolet, Suilven, GoShadow61, CyanB, and DCIPHOENIX_ _for leaving a review on the last chapter. Your support means a lot. :)_

_Thank you to KabiViolet for beta reading._

* * *

Bau didn't come back to the ship for several hours.

By the time he finally boarded the _Inandra_, the Citadel was well into its night cycle. His mind was still swirling around the last few hours' events as he locked the hatch behind him, then headed down the corridor to the galley for a late meal. It was the voices of his team that brought his attention back to the present; by the sound of it, they were comparing notes about missions they'd been part of in their respective careers, trying to top each other's stories with more and more outrageous tales of survival.

He stepped into the small mess just as Shepard was describing a fight with a thresher maw—on foot, no less. She was sitting at the table across from Vakarian, pieces of their weapons neatly spread out between them as they wiped their equipment clean.

"Ah, Commander Shepard, Detective Vakarian," Bau greeted them with a nod. "Glad to see you're still up."

The oily rag came to a halt in Shepard's hand as she looked up from her gun. "Spectre. Did everything go well?"

Bau strolled over to the kitchen counter and leaned against it, crossing his arms in front of his narrow chest. "Basically, yes. Not as well as I had hoped, though."

Garrus cocked his head to the side as he studied the Spectre's dour expression. "Complications?"

"A few, but nothing that couldn't be handled." His large eyes closed for a moment, and he took a deep, calming breath before he continued. "Santiago has gone through emergency surgery. His condition is stable, but he's still in a coma. He's under guard at Huerta Memorial—despite his lawyer's objections."

Shepard's eyes darted over to Garrus. He gave her a pointed look, but stayed silent, so she turned her attention back to the Spectre. "His lawyer?"

"Yes. He showed up as soon as Santiago was admitted to the hospital. He tried to convince the medical staff that his client would get better care at the human clinic in Shalta Ward."

Garrus let out an annoyed snort. "That place would be impossible to secure. We might as well have handed him back to the Blue Suns."

"No doubt that was the goal." Bau rolled his neck, trying to loosen the tense muscles in his shoulder. He hadn't realized until now how much the stiff posture he'd adopted during the intense debate had tightened up his entire body. He let out a long exhale through his nostrils as he chased away thoughts of a nice, hot shower and that leftover bowl of soup he'd promised his empty stomach on the way back to the ship. As tempting as a little food and a relaxing shower seemed at the moment, there were things they needed to discuss first.

"Mr. Carson also filed several complaints about the arrest and myself," he went on. "According to him, his client is innocent of all charges and was only targeted out of some kind of anti-human agenda on my part. He also made an allegation that I'd set the refinery on fire to kill as many people as I could and it was my excessive use of force during the capture that resulted in Santiago's life-threatening injuries. He even got the human ambassador involved, who submitted a formal protest to the Council. I spent hours going through the legal documents and putting together my case files, and I still need to collect all the data from the records of our mission for the official hearing that's going to take place tomorrow morning."

Garrus narrowed his eyes. It was exactly this kind of bullshit that made him want to leave C-Sec and become a Spectre. To hear that even _they_ weren't immune to politics and red tape was less than encouraging. "I thought Spectres were above the law."

"To a certain point, yes. However, the Council still has to investigate if there's any suspicion of gross misconduct on a Spectre's part."

Shepard shook her head. "But why would Udina take up Santiago's case at all?" As big a dick as the ambassador was, his public support for a known criminal didn't make any sense.

"Vido Santiago has an extended family that has become enormously rich and powerful in the last few years—no doubt thanks to his illicit activities. Their influence reaches through all levels of business and politics; I can only guess that Mr. Udina has been pressured either by them or by somebody connected to them to put in a word for Santiago." The Spectre tapped his chin with a long finger as he contemplated the issue. "I don't think he'll be a problem, though. He wouldn't want to risk his career for a criminal like Vido Santiago. I'm quite certain that his protest was just for show—to fulfill whatever obligation he had to that mystery person. But," he said, pushing away from the counter," we'll find out soon enough. The hearing will be at oh-nine-hundred hours during the next day cycle where the two of you will have to testify about the events on Zorya. We should be able to leave for Omega after that."

He walked over to the fridge, leaving Shepard and Vakarian to their own thoughts, and pulled out the bowl of food with a satisfied sniff. It wasn't exactly restaurant quality fair, but after the day he'd gone through, he would have eaten anything that looked mildly digestible. Even his idiot cousin's cooking.

Well. Maybe not _that_.

**~ooo~**

With the trip to Omega aborted for the day, Shepard and Garrus finished cleaning their weapons in silence, then, as if on cue, they both got up and retreated to the crew quarters to get ready for bed.

She hadn't even noticed how exhausted she was until her gaze fell on her bunk. Now, all she could think about was stripping down to her underwear, not even bothering with changing into her sleeping shirt and shorts in the bathroom (she was pretty sure Bau was taking a shower there at the moment anyway), and falling into bed.

Walking over to the back of the room, she peeled off her light jacket and draped it over one of the chairs, then bent down, legs straight and torso curved in a graceful arc, to release the seals on her boots. She kicked them off, then undid the belt and the zipper on her pants and began shimmying out of them, bending in half once more to push them all the way down.

She was about to drop her neatly folded trousers on the seat of the chair when she heard a strange, strangled noise coming from behind.

She twisted around and caught Garrus's astonished gaze just before he quickly looked away. He was sitting on his mattress, just a few feet away from her, his mandibles fluttering in an expression that she wasn't familiar with as he went back to the task of removing his own footwear.

"What?" she asked, turning her whole body towards him now.

"Hmm?" he asked back. "Nothing."

It didn't escape her attention that he seemed to be avoiding her eyes. Something told her to leave it alone, but the scene was too intriguing to obey that inner voice. "_What_?" she asked again, a bit more forcefully this time.

He finally looked up. His mandibles fluttered again; had it been anybody else but cocky Garrus Vakarian, she would have sworn that he looked embarrassed. "Are all humans so, uh, flexible?"

She stared at him for a moment before her lips pulled into a wide grin. "Turians aren't?"

He shook his head and looked away from her as he pulled off his boots and shoved them under his bed.

Her eyes slid down to his feet. She tried not to stare, but, even covered by a pair of thick socks, they were so different from a human's that she found it nearly impossible to resist the temptation. She had some gloating to do, however, so she forced herself to stop gawking. "I guess there are some things we're just better at. Don't let it bother you too much."

He let out a snort, and his mandibles flared into a toothy smirk as his blue eyes traveled up her body. "You might have flexibility, but we have reach."

She shrugged and turned back to the chair. "That's not exactly hard to do, given your height and the length of your limbs."

She set her pants down, then, balancing on one foot at a time, pulled off her socks and threw them in her laundry bag. Her bra still had to go, but—human fetish or not—she was not about to give an even bigger show to Vakarian than she already had, so she reached behind her back and undid the clasps through the fabric of her undershirt. Snaking a hand up one sleeve, she took hold of the strap and pulled it off her arm, then she repeated the maneuver on the other side, and finally yanked the whole thing out from under her shirt through the sleeve.

Bau kept the ship warm enough, but still, barefoot and dressed only in her undershirt and panties, her skin started to pebble with goose bumps, so she threw the bra on top of her folded pants and hurried to her bed to slide under the covers.

A glance over at Garrus confirmed her suspicion: he'd been watching her again with that strange expression on his face. "What now?" she asked with a sigh as she pulled the blanket up to her ear.

He shook his head, as if to clear his mind of some mental image, before he spoke. "Just wondering if you're, uh, decorated like that other human woman."

Shepard's eyebrows pulled together into a confused frown. "What?"

"That biotic woman on Zorya. She had all those colorful patterns on her skin."

She raised her torso up onto an elbow, ignoring the cool air as the blanket fell away from her chest. "Do I look like I'm tattooed all over like that maniac?"

He cocked his head as he studied the expanse of skin exposed to his scrutiny. "I don't know. I haven't seen you naked."

"And you never will."

He laughed and stood up just long enough to lift up his blanket, then he climbed into bed and covered himself from chin to toe.

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "What, you're not taking off your new undersuit?"

"No, it's too cold in here for that."

She hadn't really thought about it before, but now she couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed. He'd had his fun watching her undress; it was only fair that she got a little peak at his body as well.

That thought, however, didn't irritate her half as much as the sudden realization of who exactly it was she was so anxious to ogle.

She squeezed her eyes shut and bit into her lower lip to stifle an annoyed groan. No. She was _not _a xenophiliac pervert; it didn't matter what Vakarian looked like beneath his undersuit.

She cleared her throat and peered over at him, trying to school her features into a neutral expression. "So... How are your wounds?" she asked, attempting to divert her brain from those stupid, unwelcome ideas.

"Much better. I'm sure things will be totally fine by tomorrow."

"That's uh, good. Well, goodnight, Garrus."

"Goodnight, Shepard."

He called out to the computer to turn off the lights, and the room fell into darkness.

Shepard turned over onto her other side, closed her eyes, and despite her racing thoughts, she went to sleep within a few seconds.

**~ooo~**

The hearing went much faster than Shepard had anticipated.

Bau presented his case, calling up charts, surveillance images, and documents on the holo projector in the middle of the room, and the councilors listened attentively, barely asking any questions other than whether Shepard and Garrus agreed with the Spectre's description of the events on Zorya. Udina made a half-hearted attempt to question the arrest's legality and complain about Bau's alleged anti-human bias, which the Councilors unanimously rejected, and less than fifteen minutes after it had started, the hearing ended with the Council upholding the Spectre's judgment in the case and approving Santiago's arrest and future punishment.

Just as Bau had predicted, Udina didn't seem to be too upset about the ruling. In fact, he gave their group an appeasing nod before he turned on his heel and left the room.

"Good," Bau said, tapping on his omni-tool's interface to close down his presentation files. "Now we can—" His hand froze in the air as an urgent message flashed up on the screen, and his facial muscles hardened into a frown as he studied the text. "Hmm," he muttered to himself, "Miss Goto, what are you up to?"

Shepard watched in fascination as he began to type furiously, his fingers flying over the holographic keyboard like a pack of hungry birds fighting for a few morsels on the ground, before he finally closed the program and dropped his arm.

"Problem?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Not anymore. My most elusive target has just tried to hack into my files and erase all information I've gathered about her, but I managed to block all access.

At least for now," he added with a dark look. "However, I must pay a quick visit to my apartment and check my personal terminal there to make sure that it has not been compromised. Maybe set up a few more encryption protocols. I'll see you back on the ship in about an hour."

He gave his team a small nod, then hurried away without so much as a backward glance.

As soon as he was gone, Garrus peered down at Shepard, his mandibles widening into a smile. "Well, see you later, Shepard."

"You not coming back to the ship?"

He shook his head as he turned around to walk away. "Not yet. I have something to do first."

"Going to see your doctor girlfriend, huh?" she called after him with a snicker.

He threw a grin at her over his shoulder, but did not stop. "Jealous?"

"Pfft. Don't be ridiculous."

He chuckled and continued on his way, and she watched him stroll down the stairs, her eyes raking over his broad shoulders and narrow waist.

Jealous? Her? Well... maybe just a little.

**~ooo~**

After a quick (and disappointing) visit to Rodam Expeditions, Shepard took a rapid transit cab to the docking port and boarded the _Inandra. _

The ship was empty and boring without Bau and Vakarian, so she settled down in the small mess, put her feet up on the chair across from hers, and pulled up the game she'd purchased for her omni-tool from the enthusiastic salarian game shop clerk in Zakera Ward.

It was an old human game that she was quite familiar with, but hadn't played in quite a long time—the perfect entertainment to help while away the empty hours that long missions in space tended to come with.

Moving the cards from pile to pile was a mindless, though quite enjoyable (and addictive) task, and she got so absorbed in trying to win at least once that she almost didn't hear when Vakarian came on board.

She kept playing even as his heavy footsteps thudded closer and closer, and merely greeted him with a grunt when he finally entered the room. She kept her eyes focused on the display until a three-fingered hand moved into her field of vision and put a box on the table in front of her.

Her gaze drifted to the black box with the red and orange letters, and for a few moments all she could do was stare at it with her mouth agape.

It was an MX-117.

She shut the game off and ran her fingers along the smooth edges of the container. "Where... Where did you get this?"

"There's a salarian shopkeeper on the Presidium Commons that likes to acquire rare weapons and mods, then sell them to his VIP customers—for an inflated price, of course. It's all very hush-hush and under the table. All he needed, though, was a little _friendly persuasion _to convince him to sell this to me at the original price."

She finally tore her gaze away from her treasure to look up into his smiling eyes. "Thank you. I can pay—"

He held up a hand and shook his head. "Bau's credit chit covered it all." He sat down on the chair next to hers and flared his mandibles into that cocky grin she'd become so familiar with. "And you're welcome. So, what were you doing?"

She followed his gaze to her omni-tool, and turned the game back on with a grin of her own. "Solitaire. Wanna learn how to play?"

"Sure."

When Bau boarded the ship half an hour later, he found the two of them still huddled together, with Shepard's arm resting on the table, her omni-tool's screen hovering brightly in the air, and Garrus's fingers moving piles of cards on the display like an old card shark.


End file.
